Before City Of Heavenly Fire

2007 England

Chapter 1

Tessa woke up to the sound of knocking at the door. She looked over at the clock by her bed and
sighed it was four o'clock in the morning. She quickly got up, grabbed her dressing gown and ran
to open the door. There on the doorstep was Magnus dressed in a black studded t-shirt and jeans his hair was spiky and covered in blue glitter.
"Magnus! I thought you were in New York!"
Tessa couldn't suppress the glee of seeing her old friend who she hadn't seen in years.
"Well it was getting a bit boring and we haven't seen each other in what 50 years. So I thought I would drop in you know for a long term visit" he gave a shaky laugh.
He was nervous something that Tessa had never seen him be. His cat eyes were so sad and kept darting around looking for danger. It was true they hadn't seen each other in ages but then again when you were both immortal time didn't really matter.

Tessa sighed "I guess you better come in then even though it is four o'clock in the morning."
She lead him though her small flat towards the kitchen.
Magnus was wandering around aimlessly looking at all the pictures on the walls and at the small trinkets that she kept on the shelves. She could see his hands trembling he was obviously trying to play it cool but not managing. Sighing again Tessa asked
"Magnus why are you here?"
"I told you New York was getting boring so I thought I would visit you."
"No Magnus why are you really here. You can't fool me I know you to well what's this really about?"
Magnus looked at her not saying anything for a while the finally he spoke with hesitation
"I had a dream. I dreamt of a city with towers made of bone and blood running through the streets like water."
"What do you think it means?"
"I don't know but I know trouble and I'm not a fighter I'm a coward. So I did what cowards do when there's trouble. I ran."

They sat there in silence for what seemed like hours thinking over the words and meanings of the dream. Both of them knew that dreams were powerful things and normally had some hidden meaning. Finally Tessa spoke.
"But that's not everything that's happened and the dream doesn't explain why you had to come running to me."
Magnus looked tired, he had dark shadows under his eyes and his skin was a pale colour. It took him a while but finally he replied.
"I met a shadowhunter, a handsome, kind shadowhunter. From the minute that I saw him I knew that he was the one that I had been waiting for." He smiled at the memory. "Anyway his friends were caught up with all the business going on in Idris and Alec asked me for help and I helped them. Everything was fine at first we sorted all the mess going on in Idris, we saved his friend and helped the clave but then I guess he finally realised that he was mortal and that I was not."
Tessa looked deep into his eyes which were swimming with sadness and despair. She understood how he was feeling as she herself had gone through those same emotions as she had watched Will grow weak and old and finally dying.
"What else happened?" She asked.
"Well Camille found him and I'm not sure what happened next but she convinced him that if he killed one of her enemies she would tell him a spell that would turn me back into a mortal."
"What do you mean turn you back into a mortal?"

There was hurt in Tessa's voice as she thought that she may have had the chance of growing old with Will.
"I know what your thinking Tessa and it wouldn't have worked. The spell is one of the hardest spells out there to perform and even if you did the ritual correctly the chance of it actually working is even slimmer. The process is so painful it would most likely kill you. I have only heard of one person that actually survived the whole process." He was looking at her carefully seeing how she took the news. She sighed and turned towards Magnus.
"So what happened after that?"
"Camille told me about her little deal with Alec and after that I didn't feel as I if I could trust him anymore so I told him to leave and then came here."
Tessa felt sorry for him he had always been there for her and was always such a happy carefree person who wore weird out of date clothes.

"Well I'm going back to bed, the spare room is the second door to the right. You can stay as long as you want."
She started getting up and clearing away the cups of tea when he spoke again.
"I didn't tell you did I, but one of Alec's friends was called Jace Herondale."
Tessa looked up.
"Herondale? But I thought that Imogen was the last Herondale and she died a few months ago?"
"Yes well. Jace has a rather complicated family history and has just recently found out that he is in fact a Herondale."
Tessa was intrigued she hadn't had any contact with her family since Will died and yet this boy, Jace, who she had never heard off before interested her.
"Well as I said I'm going to bed."

She returned to her room and tried to fall back to sleep but however hard she tried thoughts of Will, Jace and her life kept her awake. She didn't understand what interested her so much about the boy. She had left her family years ago and only received small bits of information about them from friends and yet this boy intrigued her.





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This is the first time I have ever written anything on this so please give me advice on how to improve but please try not to be too mean.

Hope you have enjoyed this and I will try to update it soon.